I sit in a hospital bed, staring at a police officer.
He’s standing just outside the curtain surrounding my bed, talking to Ben. I can see them both through the crack where the fabric isn’t closed all the way.
“You heard him say that?” the officer asks.
“Yeah,” Ben says. “Emmett yelled something about how he’d tried to kill Lucy once.”
I blink. My head is swimming and aching, but I’m pretty certain Emmett said nothing like that.
“And Matt Gardner saw Emmett that night,” Ben continues. “You should ask him about that.”
The officer nods, writing something down. He pushes the curtain aside and fixes me with a hard stare. “We’ll have more questions for you in a minute.”
I nod numbly.
He walks away, and Ben steps inside the curtain with me. His eyebrows are drawn together, the nerves and stress obvious in the way he keeps crossing and uncrossing his arms.
“She’s lying! Why aren’t any of you listening to me?” Emmett’s scream is distant from down the hall somewhere.
“I could have killed you both,” I say to Ben. He looks startled. “Sorry?”
“When you tossed me the hammer. I could have killed him, and then you. Your sense of self-preservation is lacking.”
He lets out a breath of air that’s like a laugh. “Like you said before, that would have been a better ending. You kill the real killer and the host of the
podcast trying to solve the crime. I think a lot of people would have liked that ending better.”
I side-eye him. “There’s something wrong with you.”
“I know.” He smiles. “I never thought you were going to kill me, Lucy.” I don’t know whether I believe him.
I’d like to, though.
“Emmett didn’t say that,” I say after a brief silence. “What?”
“You know what. He didn’t yell anything about killing me. He told you he was innocent.”
He shrugs.
I imitate his shrug. “That’s it?”
“Whatever. It’s close enough to the truth. People are going to believe whatever I say. Your word isn’t enough.”
“The truth doesn’t matter.”
Savvy’s words sound gentle this time. Less angry.
I shift my attention back to Ben. “The truth is whatever you say it is.”
